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Peggy
Thanks for this most enlightening post. I'm now wondering if artists get selected for representation, by an agency, only after they've already reached a certain level of recognition and skill with their own hard work and self-promotion. The numbers you mention, like 200 artists all around the US, and 5 to 7 new artists per year, essentially rule out representation for almost everyone.
Let me contrast those numbers with other professions. In computer consulting you have a total of around 5 million engineers in the US of whom say at least 1 million may be agent represented (and agent-hopper!!!) contractors like me. In addition, 195,000 foreigners are imported every year to pick up the slack (in good times). That's the level of demand we have in high-tech (or at least had during the Y2K bug and .com days).
Am I correct in concluding that the market for something like portraiture is confined to just a very small select group of clients who are wealthy and knowlegdeable enough to realize the value of portrait ?. If 200 artists around the US complete an average of 1 portrait a month, that's around 2400 portraits a year times an average price of say $10,000 would be $24 million, or let's jack it up to $30 million spent on portraits in the US a year. That strikes me as relatively low compared to other areas where affluent people spend disposable income.
I wonder if more artists got their work out there, that the demand for portraits would increase. After all, people spend a lot to join the exclusive $35K Rollex watch, and $10K mink coat clubs. If only it were better known that having a portrait painted puts a person in an even more exclusive group (celebrities and leaders in business, education, clergy, government, and other professions etc.)
Tarique
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